Duck!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Glowworm

Senior Member
Location
Sweden
Those of you living between the 41st parallels - that's anywhere in the region from New York in the north to Auckland, New Zealand in the south - should be extremely careful on May 9th as a 20 ton piece of the Chinese space rocket CZ-5B will crash somewhere after re-entering the earth's atmosphere.

The exact point of impact is unknown so you'd all better take precautions. I live north of the 41st parallel so I'm safe but I'd hate to read that somebody here had a lump of space junk land on their home.

Apparently China is the only space nation that can't or won't program their rockets so they land in the sea.

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I was listening to a broadcast night before last related to this, and it was mentioned that China needs to retool the design of their rockets so as to avoid this scenario in the future.

It was confirmed by Jonathan McDowell, astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, that Canada is in zero danger of seeing any of the debris due to the rocket stage in orbit that takes it from 41°N to 41°S, so it's stays over places like the USofA, Europe, and so forth.
 
Australia is often the final resting place for 'Space Junk'
I'll be thinking of you until word is out that everyone in your neck of the woods is safe and sound, Peram.

Same goes for everywhere else.

In the radio broadcast I listened to, Jonathan McDowell, explained that there is a liability convention, a space treaty, where by if the debris from the Chinese space rocket lands on you, you can sue them.

Million dollar question is, what if the person the debris hits/lands on doesn't live to tell about it.
 
I'll be thinking of you until word is out that everyone in your neck of the woods is safe and sound, Peram.

Same goes for everywhere else.

In the radio broadcast I listened to, Jonathan McDowell, explained that there is a liability convention, a space treaty, where by if the debris from the Chinese space rocket lands on you, you can sue them.

Million dollar question is, what if the person the debris hits/lands on doesn't live to tell about it.
Go to the army surplus store and buy tin helmets just in case!!
 
Go to the army surplus store and buy tin helmets just in case!!
According to Jonathan McDowell, the rocket is in a fairly circular orbit, flying horizontally at 18,000 MPH, while skimming the top of the atmosphere.

Eventually the rocket will warm up and break up, however, the density of the earths atmosphere (which changes daily) will have to be taken into consideration, and by the weekend those involved monitoring the situation should know within a few hours as to when the debris will come down.

Jonathan McDowell, also made mention of the fact that even in a few hours travelling at 18,000 MPH, the rocket travels around the earth twice, just to give you an idea of the sheer velocity of the out-of-control rocket, and how challenging it is to ascertain where and when the rocket will come crashing down exactly.
 
If it "Lands" in a populated area, no matter where,
it should make all those who send vehicles into the
stratosphere, a good reason to change things and
to bring back defunct machines, instead of leaving
them to circle until they fall down, there are thousands
of tons of junk flying around just waiting to return home!

Mike.
 
Just saw on CNN it IS going to land on land and is not going to burn up. I think they said it will strike Kyrgyzstan. This is from the U.S. military. Nothing from China.
 
Well, I guess we're safe for now. But Chicken Little was a righteous little dude, far ahead of his time. Maybe some enterprising person can fish this 20 ton chunk of space debris out of the Indian Ocean and return it to Walmart, purveyor of goods from China...and watch the skies! 🙀
 
Australia is often the final resting place for 'Space Junk'
The net is all flutter about "Chinese space junk" crashing back to earth. Horrors!
I'm quite sure Aussies will tell you that one the USA's favorite dump sites for their hurdling space junk is OZ. All the nations, who blast stuff into orbit, are space junk litterers.
 
The net is all flutter about "Chinese space junk" crashing back to earth. Horrors!
I'm quite sure Aussies will tell you that one the USA's favorite dump sites for their hurdling space junk is OZ. All the nations, who blast stuff into orbit, are space junk litterers.
Those are all "controlled descent", though.

The Indian Ocean has been a favorite spot as well, but our Ozzie friends are kind enough to retrieve the bits that land on their soil so we can check out how stuff held up during re-entry. (They're probably compensated somehow - shared science at least)
 
The media beats a drum to get your attention so they can sell soap.
Really tired of this-yea, we need to know where it will land, but not four days worth of speculation Geeezzzz
 


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